by Rev. Paula Richards

Opening Up #9/2012

I just received a package in the mail from a friend as part of a course I am taking. We were each supposed to send something that would be symbolic to the other person. I thought it might be feathers because it was so lightweight but, when I began opening the bubble wrap, the furry looking item seemed to bemoving. And, indeed it wasmoving. It was expanding! This freaked me out for a moment until I realized that it was a cat-o’-nine-tail plant; you know the one that grows on a long stock and looks like a cigar. Apparently, when it was picked, it was at the beginning stage of releasing its seeds which are held within the beige, fluffy substance that the cigar transforms into in order to shed them. When I tried to brush the fluff away from what I thought was the more solid brown core, I was shocked to see more fluff gushing out at an almost alarming rate. I never knew cat-o’-nine-tail plants were like that! I sat there amazed as the fluff spread like wildfire across my table and into the air. It seemed like there was no containing it. It was so sudden and unexpected that I found myself giggling like a child and grinning from ear to ear.

The courses I am taking are all about opening up to remembering my true nature as a spiritual being. My friend’s gift was a perfect symbol of that transformation. As she said so eloquently in her note to me, “Once we begin to open up, we can’t be contained, we fly and get free.”